The illusion of causality

First let me get this out of the way: I’m not speaking of physical causality. The laws of physics exist and are what they are for one reason, which is to set the stage for the adventure of evolution. They set the stage for a play but they do not direct the play. Nor do I speak of the laws of classical physics which, as theoretical limits of quantum-physical laws, might be considered illusory. Nor do I mean to say that it is illusory to transmogrify into a deterministically evolving state of affairs what is a mere tool for making probabilistic predictions, such as the quantum-mechanical wave function.

I’m speaking of the drama that is being played on said stage. And specifically, I am concerned with the difference between how this drama appears to a mentally conscious being and how it appeared to someone in the process of supramental transformation — someone like Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator and peer whom he called “the Mother.” On April 2, 1972, the Mother said:

We want a race without ego, with the divine consciousness in place of the ego. That’s what we want: the divine consciousness, which will enable the race to develop and the supramental being to be born. If you think I am here because I am bound, you are wrong. I am not bound. I am here because my body has given itself for the first attempt at transformation. Sri Aurobindo told me so, he told me, “I know of no one who can do it, except you.” I said, “All right, I will do it.” It’s not ... I don’t wish anyone to do it in my place, because ... because it’s not very pleasant, but I am doing it gladly, because everybody will benefit from the results.

The difference I have in mind is this:

Our habitual state of consciousness is to do something FOR something.... At any level whatsoever, there is always a goal. Even we speak of the “supramental realization” as the goal. Just recently, though, I don’t know what happened, but something seemed to take hold of me: ... the nonexistence of the goal. There used to be a kind of mainspring, which had its raison d’être and so persisted: do this to arrive at that, and this leads to that (it’s more subtle, of course); but this mainspring suddenly seems to have been abolished, because it became useless. Now a kind of absoluteness prevails at each and every second, in each movement, from the most subtle, the most spiritual, to the most material. The sense of linking has disappeared: that isn’t the cause of this, and this isn’t done for that; there is no “there” one is heading towards — it all seems.... An absolute — innumerable, perpetual and simultaneous. The sense of connection has gone; the sense of cause and effect has gone — all that belongs to the world of space and time.... There is no... (Mother makes a horizontal motion) …this kind of connection doesn’t exist; it’s like this (Mother makes a vertical motion which towers over and embraces everything at once).... Don’t try to understand! It is obviously untranslatable. But what can be translated is this kind of sensation that the sequence of cause and effect, of purpose, of goal, all seems to be very far below, very, very DISTANT, very ... human — perhaps divine, too (from the viewpoint of the gods it may be like this also, I don’t know), because in the consciousness of the universal Mother it is still there, there is still this ardent love to serve.... That is still there, so it’s there with the gods also. [April 25, 1961]

This poise of consciousness beyond space and time is also the seat of the highest Power:

I have a feeling that to have access to the highest and purest Power, the very notion of “result” must disappear completely — the Supreme Power has no sense of result AT ALL. The sense of result is yet another rift between the essential, supreme Power and.... In other words, it’s because the consciousness begins to separate slightly [from its identity with the Supreme Power] that the sense of result is created, but otherwise it doesn’t exist. It’s as if everything had to be the Action, the eternal Action at each second of the Manifestation. At each pulsation — which corresponds to time in the Manifestation — THAT alone is the case. And the idea of something having a result is already a distortion.... The sense of consequences is false; it already implies a lowering of consciousness.... It’s a kind of liberation — I don’t mean from worry or preoccupation, there’s no question of that — but from the very IDEA of a consequence: it’s this way because that’s the way it is; it has to be this way, so it is. That’s all.... And it is this eternal Pulsation which is expressed in time by those gusts — I feel this very strongly. It’s a constant, spontaneous and very natural experience for me. The idea of something behind or ahead in time and so on is ... a Truth changing from immutable Eternity into Eternity of manifestation. And it changes like this (Mother makes a pulsating gesture), exactly like gusts — puff, puff, puff.... Irresponsible gusts, like a child’s soap bubbles, you might say. No sense of consequences — none, none whatsoever. [August 31, 1962]

And again:

Human beings always do a thing FOR something, with a goal, for a reason, from a motive; even spiritual life, even spiritual effort are FOR the progress of consciousness, FOR reaching the Truth, for ... it’s a vibration that always has a tail — a tail in front. And these cells have realized that if you can have the vibration without the tail, the power increases tenfold — “tenfold” is nothing! At times the difference is fantastic.... So, the conclusion (afterwards, naturally, when the whole thing had been seen and studied carefully), the conclusion is that the Lord has neither cause nor effect; all that is, is like those pulsations in my experience [of April 1962], the pulsations of Love bursting forth and creating the world, which followed one another but had neither cause nor effect: one pulsation wasn’t the result of the one before or the cause of the one after — not at all — each one was a whole in itself. Each moment of the Supreme is a whole in itself. [January 22, 1964]

Note that it was the cells of the Mother’s body (“these cells”) which had the realization of a “tenfold” increase of power. We must keep in mind that the supramental force is the only force in the world; all other forces are its fragmented workings. Whenever it manifests itself in its own right, the latter are automatically integrated into their parent dynamism. All limitations (both of consciousness and of force) are thereby annulled: the forces active in the body are liberated from their blind automatic, habitual modes of working; the consciousness presently locked up in the body’s cells is released; and the familiar stratification of consciousness — a limited mental consciousness atop a beleaguered vital consciousness atop an inert material consciousness — is abolished. Needless to say, to be able to liberate the force at work in the body from its automatic workings,

you must be free to such an extent from everything which at present represents the physical consciousness that it becomes every second a battle. All feelings, all sensations, all thoughts, all reflexes, all attractions, all repulsions, all existing things, all that forms the fabric of our physical life must be overcome, transformed and freed from all their habits. This is a battle of every second against thousands and millions of enemies. [Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 5, October 14, 1953]

The whole automatic habit of millennia must be changed into a conscious action, directly guided by the supreme Consciousness. [January 22, 1966]

This is the throughline of the 13 volumes of Mother’s Agenda.

Let us now talk (or rather let the Mother talk) about those “pulsations” and “gusts.” After a perilous month in 1962, the Mother had a decisive experience. This was her account:

Suddenly in the night [of April 12‒13, 1962] I woke up with the full awareness of what we could call the “Yoga of the world.” The Supreme Love was manifesting through big pulsations, and each pulsation was bringing the world further in its manifestation. It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal, stupendous Love, only Love: each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation. And the certitude that what is to be done is done and the Supramental Manifestation is realized....

To put the last statement in perspective: on April 18, 1961, the Mother recalled that “thirty-five years before India became free, I saw that she was free. It was already done.” The account continues:

The certitude that what is to be done is DONE. All the results of the Falsehood had disappeared: Death was an illusion, sickness was an illusion, ignorance was an illusion — something that had no reality, no existence.... Only Love, and Love, and Love, and Love — immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything.... Compared to the experience, whatever I say is nothing, nothing, nothing but words. [April 13, 1962]

Several times thereafter, the Mother referred back to these pulsations:

One thing that seems to be trying to come is the power to heal. But not at all as it’s described, it’s not that at all — it doesn’t give a sense of “healing.” It’s ... putting things back in order. But that’s not it either.... It’s a little something that disappears, and that little something ... essentially, it’s the Falsehood.... Basically, this is what gives the ordinary human consciousness the sense of reality. That’s what must disappear. What we call “concrete,” a “concrete reality” ... yes, what truly gives you the sense of real existence — that’s what must disappear and be replaced by ... It’s inexpressible.... That state, which I felt to be pulsations of creative Love, is what must replace here this consciousness of concrete reality — which becomes unreal: it’s like something lifeless — hard, dry, inert, lifeless. And to our ordinary consciousness, that’s what gives you the impression, “This is concrete, this is real.” Well, “this,” this sensation, is what must be replaced.... And That is at the same time all-light, all-power, all-intensity of love, and such FULLNESS! It’s so full that ... nothing else can exist. And when That is here, in the body, in the cells, then all you have to do is focus It on someone or something, and order is instantly restored in the person or the thing. So, translated into ordinary words, it “heals.” It heals the disease. But it doesn’t “heal” it: it annuls it. [July 12, 1967]

When you have gone from Creation to Non-creation (which are concomitant) and then go beyond, you encounter this “something” which, I don’t know why, I call Love.... Probably because the vibration of true Love (what I call divine Love, which is at work in the world) bears the closest resemblance to That.... That night I WAS that Pulsation, and each burst of pulsation created. It was the first expression of That in the Manifestation; and it was already in action, it was already in movement. But the Vibration behind that is ... I might say the potentiality of everything — of everything that becomes perceptible to us through the Manifestation; it is everything that in our consciousness gets divided into various possibilities, like truth, love, life, power, etc. ... And it’s everything together; not the union of different things: it’s everything — everything, and it is absolutely ONE, but everything is there. And That is what one finds beyond the Manifestation and the Non-manifestation.... That Pulsation was the origin of the Manifestation. Non-manifestation is blissful Immobility — it’s more than that, but it’s essentially that: blissful Immobility. It’s the supreme and supremely divine essence of rest. And both [Manifestation and Non-manifestation] are together, and they come from That. [March 20, 1965]

There is another aspect to this oneness or togetherness, which takes us back to the reality (or otherwise) of causation.

What I mean by Oneness is [also] that you can’t distinguish between conceiving the action, the will to act, the action itself, and the result. It’s.... All is one, simultaneous. But how? It can’t be explained — it simply can’t! You can get a glimpse of the experience, but ... ultimately, it’s inexpressible, we have no means to express it. If we say “all is simultaneous,” we’re talking in platitudes.... Whatever we say about it is nonsense.... At their maximum, at the height of their possibilities, human conceptions can at the VERY BEST express something or other of the overmind. [October 6, 1962]

When the Mother said that “it’s a little something that disappears, and that little something ... essentially, it’s the Falsehood,” what did she mean by Falsehood? “It is the creation’s unconsciousness that constitutes the Falsehood of the creation,” she said on March 3, 1965, “and as soon as the creation becomes conscious again of BEING the Lord, Falsehood will cease.”

And that's how it is indeed: everything is difficult, everything is laborious, everything is hard going, everything is painful, because everything is done outside the Lord's consciousness. But when He takes possession of His domain again (or rather when we let Him take possession of His domain again) and things are done in His consciousness, with His consciousness, everything will become not only easy but marvelous, glorious – and inexpressibly joyful. [March 3, 1965]

To a supramental consciousness, the real causality is not an action or determination across time but one that proceeds from timelessness into time. It is neither successive (even though its “effects” follow each other in time) nor is it simultaneous since “simultaneity” is a relation between events in time. And so we may rightfully ask, what use is our sense of self-determination, of making decisions that are informed by past experience and motivated by desires and fears? Why do we pursue goals? Why do we act from a desire to obtain results? Because of the drama that is playing on the aforementioned stage (in a theater near you, as it were). At the heart of it is the evolution of freedom.

Suppose that you are infinite and all-powerful, and that you want to experience the evolution of freedom, from initially being locked up — Houdini-like — in physical matter. How would you begin? Obviously, you would begin by developing the illusion of freedom, which even a paramecium can have, and then gradually recover your original freedom.

At what point in evolution would your vaunted free will cease to be wholly illusory? Most systems of Indian philosophy share the fundamental distinction between Purusha and Prakriti. Prakriti, which encompasses not only our bodies but also our minds, functions deterministically. Purusha, identifying himself with certain physical and mental operations of Prakriti, believes that he chooses when in fact she (Prakriti) chooses. But the Purusha is also capable of becoming aware of his independence from Prakriti and her dependence on his sanction. Everything between the paramecium and this “long-delayed but inevitable next step in our evolutionary destiny” [LD 886] is characterized by the pursuit of goals, which falls within the purview of Prakriti.

But how does Prakriti bring one nearer to taking this step? In a note to a disciple, the Mother once managed to condense the entire law of Karma into a single sentence, while at the same time disposing of a notion that is as asinine as it is common:

The Divine does not see things the way men do and does not need to punish and reward. All actions carry in themselves their fruit along with their consequences. According to its nature, the action brings you closer to the Divine or takes you away from the Divine and that is the supreme consequence. [July 25, 1970]

Because being closer to the Divine generally is a happier condition than being farther from It/Him/Her, sooner or later one begins to put in the necessary effort.

At bottom, there is only one way that genuine freedom is possible: being the sole determinant of all that happens or is the case in the world. Essentially, that is what we are. Potentially, that is what we can become. This is the “supreme secret” of the Bhagavad Gita, the key to which is “self-surrender to the Master of Existence” [EG 263]. Begin by abandoning the desire for the fruit of your actions, learn to act without desire or fear, abandon all dharmas (all social pressures, all mental rules of what should or should not be done), seek refuge in Him who will release you from all sense of wrong-doing, then abandon action itself to Him, be his instrument, let Him act through you.

One can have mastery over circumstances only if one becomes the Supreme — because the Supreme alone has mastery over circumstances.... If you become identified with the Supreme and there is but ONE will — His — then of course you have supreme mastery.... You imagine that by wanting a certain thing you can change circumstances, but you still have to be in total ignorance to believe that the change occurs because YOU want it to — in fact, the Supreme is making use of you. Consequently, you have no mastery at all; you are an instrument used by the Supreme, and that’s all. [May 23, 1961]

To the Mother, “desire” meant more than wanting to have something or wishing that something will happen:

The moment when the expression of the divine Will is blurred, distorted by the introduction of a desire, the special vibration of desire, which has a quality all of its own and which comes for many apparent reasons: it’s not only a thirst for something, a need for something or an attachment to something; that same vibration can be triggered by the fact that, for instance, the will expressed seems to be (or at any rate has been taken for) the expression of the supreme Will, but there has been a confusion between the immediate action which was evidently the expression of the supreme Will, and the result which was to follow from that action — it’s a very common mistake. People are used to thinking that when they want a particular thing, that’s what should come; because their vision is too short — too short and too limited, not an overall vision which would make them see that that particular vibration is necessary to trigger a number of other vibrations, and that it’s the TOTALITY of them all that will have an effect, which isn’t the immediate effect of the vibration that was sent out.... I don’t know whether this is clear, but it's a constant experience….

For example, you tell someone, “Give me this,” and the person, instead of giving that, misunderstands and gives something else; so if you don’t take care to keep an overall vision, a certain vibration may occur, say of impatience, or a dissatisfaction, along with the feeling that the Lord’s vibration is neither understood nor received. Well, it’s that little ADDED vibration of impatience (or, in fact, of incomprehension of what happens), it’s that feeling of a lack of receptivity or response that has the quality of desire — we can’t call it a “desire,” but it’s the same kind of vibration. And that’s what comes and complicates things. If you have the complete, exact vision, you know that “Give me this” will produce a result different from the immediate one and that that other result will bring about yet another, which is exactly what should be. I don’t know whether I am making myself clear, it’s a bit complicated!....

There are examples, in the terrestrial action, of things that were done “just like that”: no one ever understood how it was done or why it was done — just like that, so simply, very simply, it all worked out. And in other cases, to obtain a mere visa or permit, you have to move heaven and earth! So, from the smallest thing, the slightest physical discomfort, to the most global action, it’s all the same principle, it all boils down to the same principle. [November 4, 1963]

Here’s another example of “that little added vibration.” A friend of the disciple has died by suicide. The Mother tells him:

You are saddened by not having done what you think you should have done.

No ... And also, there’s the suffering it involves — the unnecessary suffering.

You’re adding your own unnecessary suffering to all the others! — I don’t see your logic.... Not that I approve of death! I fight it as much as I can, for me it’s a falsehood — death and falsehood go together. But ... it’s an appearance. When you accept the falsehood, it makes you suffer. When you no longer accept, you smile. There is nothing else to do but smile.... Just these last few days — the days between the 5th and the 9th [the anniversaries of Sri Aurobindo’s passing and of the entombment of his physical body, respectively] — I always relive the minutes I lived in 1950, and I always see them in the light of the knowledge I have acquired, and I SAW, I saw to what extent pain, sorrow, regret ... especially that regret of not having done what one should have done, which is another absurdity because one NECESSARILY did what one had to do.... One did what one had to do because you cannot do anything but what the Lord makes you do, and He makes you do the thing which is at the same time the best possible for the whole and the best possible for your own progress. There. So all the regrets of “I should have ... I shouldn’t have ...” are rubbish.... Death as it is understood, on the inner level, means the loss of consciousness.... That would be the most dreadful and horrible thing, if it were possible. But it’s not possible. If you have consciousness, it cannot be lost.... Consciousness is divine, consciousness is eternal, and NOTHING can destroy it. Appearances are another matter.... So then, all the drama — all the tragedy, all the horror, all the dread, all of it — is vital fabrication. Well, those who are God’s warriors don’t allow themselves to be affected by that. One smiles, “Yes, yes, you may put on a big show, we don’t care; go ahead with the big show if you enjoy it.” As for us, we know it’s only a show — an ugly show, if you like, it’s not pretty, but it’s just a show. [November 4, 1963]

MORE AND MORE and in an ABSOLUTE way, I SEE — I see, I feel that EVERYTHING is decided.... And each thing has a raison d’être — which eludes us because our vision isn’t wide enough....

But what’s hard to understand is that this Consciousness … does it guide everything down to the smallest detail?

In the microscopic.... That’s just what I was seeing... The individual consciousness, even very vast, cannot realize, that is to say, cannot concretely understand the possibility of being conscious of everything at the same time. So it finds it difficult to understand that THE Consciousness is conscious of EVERYTHING at the same time: in the whole, in the totality as well as in the smallest detail. [January 31, 1970]

That transfer of power which the Gita enjoins at the mental and vital levels, the Mother underwent at the level of the cells.

Since the 15th, there has been a whole work of preparation for the transformation .... What could I call it? ... A transfer of power. The cells, the whole material consciousness, used to obey the inner individual consciousness — the psychic consciousness most of the time, or the mental (but the mind had been silent for a long time). But now this material mind1 is organizing itself like the other one, or the other ones, rather, like the mind of all the states of being — it is educating itself.... What we may call the “transfer of power” ... is the old power that withdraws. But then, until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which is, well, critical. As all the cells are in a state of conscious aspiration, it’s going relatively fast, but still ... the minutes are long. But there is increasingly a sort of certitude in the cells that everything that happens is with a view to this transformation and this transfer of the directing power. [August 21, 1965]

This tremendous change is what’s being conquered, so physical life may be ruled by the higher consciousness and not by the mental world. It’s the change of authority.... And that’s the REAL CHANGE, that’s what will enable the new Consciousness to express itself. And the body is learning, it’s learning its lesson — all bodies, all bodies.... This was the old division made by the mind: “Above, things are very fine, you may have all experiences and everything is luminous and marvelous; here, nothing doing.” ... That explains, by the way, why all those who did not foresee the possibility of things being otherwise had said, “Better get out of here”.... But this change, the fact that it’s NO LONGER inescapable, that is the great Victory: it’s NO LONGER inescapable.... From the very beginning of existence up to Sri Aurobindo’s departure, I lived in the consciousness that one may rise, one may know, one may have all experiences (and one did have them), but when one came back into this body … it was those for-mid-able old laws of the mind that ruled everything. So then, all these years have been years spent preparing and preparing — freeing oneself and preparing — and these last few days, it was … ah! the body PHYSICALLY noting that things had changed. It has to be worked out, as they say, realized in every detail, but the change IS DONE. Which means that the material conditions, which were elaborated by the mind, FIXED by it (Mother clenches her fist tight), and which appeared so inescapable, to such a point that those who had a living experience of the higher worlds thought one had to flee this world, abandon this material world if one really wanted to live in the Truth (that’s the cause of all those theories and beliefs), now things are no longer like that. The physical is CAPABLE of receiving the higher Light, the Truth, the true Consciousness, and of manifesting it.... Naturally, what was established hangs on tight and defends itself desperately. That’s the cause of this whole trouble (swarming gesture in the earth atmosphere) — but it has lost the battle. It’s over.... The body KNOWS that it’s over. It may take centuries, but it’s over. To disappear, it may take centuries, but it’s over now. This wholly concrete and absolute realization that one could have only when going out of Matter, it’s sure and certain that we will have it RIGHT HERE. [March 14, 1970]

The state in which people are is the result of a choice, and individually the freedom of choice is there, but they have FORGOTTEN it.... But those who got hold of this experience for some reason or other without having all the philosophical and mental preparation I had (the “saints,” or at any rate all the people who led a spiritual life) had instead a very acute impression of the unreality of life and the illusion of life. But that’s only a narrow way of looking at it. That’s not it, EVERYTHING is a choice! Everything, everything. The Lord’s choice, but IN US; not there (gesture above): here. And we are unaware of it, it’s deep down in ourselves. But when we are aware of it, we can choose.... Usually, when those who don’t have a sufficient intellectual preparation have an experience like this one, they think they have caught the “only” truth. And then, from it, they dogmatize. [January 22, 1966]

But how is it that all bodies are learning their lesson? As the supramental force is the only force in the world, so the supramental consciousness is the only consciousness in the world. (The two are in fact inseparable.) When the supramental consciousness descends into the body unimpeded by a limiting mental consciousness, it manifests its original oneness.

All that [the body] knew, all the experiences it had had, all the mastery from all the parts of the being, from the vital to the mind and above, all of that was gone! And this poor body was left to itself. Then, naturally, little by little something was rebuilt. For a long time I remained unable ... unable to do hardly anything (a little something, but hardly anything), but little by little it all was rebuilt, increasingly rebuilt: a conscious, purely conscious being — which is now chattering away! (It was unable to express itself.) ... And instead of having to go through all those states of being as it did before, through successive awakenings (gesture of ascent from degree to degree, in the way of the yogis of old), up to the highest height, the highest height beyond the form, now it’s no longer that at all, the body no longer needs anything of all that.... Something within opened and developed, which caused that idiotic mind to become organized and capable of falling silent in an aspiration. And then there was the direct Contact, without intermediaries. That it now has constantly. Constantly, every single moment, the direct contact.... But once that has been done (this is something Sri Aurobindo had said), once ONE body has done it, it has the capacity of passing it on to others.... It’s contagious. That I know. And it’s the only hope, because if everyone had to go through the same experience again ... Well, I am ninety now — at the age of ninety people are tired, they’ve had enough of life. To do this work one must feel as young as a small child. It takes a long time, I clearly see that it has taken a long time. And it isn’t done, of course, it’s BEING done — it isn’t done, far from it. [November 22, 1967]

There is progress in the impersonalization of the bodily consciousness, with consequences that are probably interesting, but impossible to explain to people who don’t understand. For instance.... I am conscious of the body, but it isn’t the consciousness of this body (Mother touches her body): it’s the consciousness of THE Body — it may be anyone’s body. I become conscious, for instance, of vibrations of disorder (most often they come in the form of suggestions of disorder) in order to see whether they are accepted and have an effect. Let’s take the example of a suggestion of hemorrhage.... Then begins the battle (all this takes place all the way down in the cells, in the material consciousness) between what we could call the “will for hemorrhage” and the reaction of the body’s cells. But it’s very like a real battle, a real confrontation. And all of a sudden, there’s something like a general issuing a command and saying, “What’s this!” ... You understand, that general is conscious of the higher forces, the higher realities and the divine intervention in Matter; and after trying to use the will, this reaction, that feeling of peace and so on, suddenly he is SEIZED by a very strong determination and issues a command — in no time the effect begins to make itself felt, and little by little everything returns to order. All this takes place in the material consciousness. Physically, the body has all the sensations — but not the hemorrhage. But it does have the sensations, that is, the effects: all the sensory effects.... Once the battle is over, I take a look and wonder (I observe the whole thing, I see my body, which has been fairly shaken, mind you), I say to myself, “What in the world is all this?”... A few days afterwards, I receive a letter from someone very close, who has an ardent faith and really holds on to me with almost perfect faith, exceptional. In the letter: the whole story, the attack, the hemorrhage, how suddenly the being is SEIZED, the consciousness is SEIZED with an irresistible will, and hears words — the very words that were uttered HERE. The result: saved (he was dying), saved, cured.... I remembered my episode ... and began to understand that my body is everywhere! You see, it’s not a question of just these cells here: it’s a question of cells in, well, quite a lot of people, hundreds, maybe thousands — all that clings anywhere and in any way to the higher Consciousness.... That’s what is so difficult for people to understand. It is THE body — this (Mother touches her body) is not my body any more than other bodies (a bit more, in the sense that it is more directly the object of the concentration of the Force). [April 6, 1963]

The body has completely lost the sense of its personality, completely, and strangely — it’s strange. For instance ... I don’t know how many times a day there will suddenly come the awareness of a disorder, a pain or suffering somewhere — somewhere in some part, but not a part ... shut in here (Mother points to her own body): like a spot in an immense body; and after a while, or a few hours later, I’ll be told that someone or other has had such and such a pain, which was felt as being part of that immense body. [July 20, 1968]

I’ll end here with a quote which contains the key to the supramental transformation of the world:

For a moment, all of a sudden I saw as ... as the Divine sees the world, you understand? There was no longer the human vision. And I saw something so marvelous.... It was so marvelous I can’t describe it.... You remember, I had told you that the Divine wanted the individual consciousness to have the experience of the Divine; well that was it.... Obviously it has to begin with the consciousness, and afterwards, little by little, things will become such, meaning, become aware of themselves such as the Divine is aware of them. [November 27, 1971]